[Fic] "Lemonade" chapter 16 -- BtVS/Gundam Wing/Naruto

Here, after a year and four months, is chapter 16 of "Lemonade." For those of you who have forgotten that I was even writing this, it is a story that really ought to be crack but which I am treating completely seriously because I like a challenge. *grin*

Basically, a demon cult screws up an interdimensional summoning spell and sends Faith Lehane (of Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Duo Maxwell (of Gundam Wing), and Uchiha Sasuke (of Naruto) to a hell dimension. The three impromptu companions are forced to work together to survive and return home. Eventually this will result in a threesome. In the meantime, there is a lot of character development and occasional intrusions of plot.

Chapter 15 ended with the trio in their little cabin sheltering from a sandstorm as nightfall approached. Chapter 16 picks up immediately after Sasuke falls asleep. (1,975 words)

( Lemonade, Part XVI )

So yeah, cliffhanger. Sorry about that.

[Fic] "Game Theory" -- Yu-Gi-Oh!; also, update on Ardis's funeral

One thing I find interesting about the world of Yu-Gi-Oh!, but which rarely seems to come up in fic, is that games are treated like professional sports. Card games, board games, dice games, tabletop RPGs... You name it, there is probably at least one professional tournament for it, and that tournament will probably be broadcast on television and reported on in the newspapers. The only game that comes even vaguely close to that in our world is poker, and even that is a stretch. (ETA: Okay, chess and Go too, in some ways and some places. But they are all very niche activities compared to sports.)

Somewhere along the line, Yugi's world took a radically different turn from ours. And I think I know why. *grin*

(I had this idea floating around my hard drive for several years, but I finally tidied it up and gave it an ending. So. "Game Theory," in 375 words.)

( Game Theory )

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Friday afternoon I fly to Minnesota, via Detroit. Ardis's funeral is Saturday morning, followed by a reception at her church and then a more private lunch and gathering at her house for relatives and close friends. Sunday morning I fly back to Ithaca, via Philadelphia.

Dad and Aunt Jan decided on five speakers (plus the minister), so neither Vicky nor I will be giving public remininscences or eulogies. That is just as well in my case; I think I would break down halfway through.

...

Ardis left bequests to both me and Vicky, which will eventually process through various bits of legal machinery into our possession. The money will, I am sure, be useful, and I am planning to give some to various charities that I have had to shortchange these past two years on account of my health insurance eating all my raises. What I would most like to have to remember her by, though, are the nice copies of a couple poems I wrote for her over the years, which she kept on the wall in her computer room.

I must remember to ask Dad about them.